UT defends admissions policy in Supreme Court case

Updated 11:08 pm, Monday, August 6, 2012

The University of Texas at Austin filed a brief Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court giving its side of a case challenging the university's use of race in admissions.

Abigail Noel Fisher, a white student from Sugar Land near Houston, has claimed that she would have been admitted to UT as an undergraduate in 2008 if she hadn't been Caucasian.

In its brief, UT argues that its admissions process is a constitutional “holistic review” that promotes diversity.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Fisher vs. University of Texas at Austin on Oct. 10, a ruling with the potential to upend affirmative-action admissions policies at the nation's institutions of higher education.

Though Fisher initially lost her case in U.S. District Court in Austin and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal, which is based on the 14th Amendment stating that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Supreme Court previously upheld the use of affirmative action in the 2003 Grutter vs. Bollinger case involving the University of Michigan's law school admissions process.

“Our admissions policies and practices closely follow the Supreme Court's opinion in the Grutter case,” UT President Bill Powers said in a video statement. “We have a very narrowly tailored and modest use of ethnicity in our admissions policies, along with many other factors that make for successful students in a holistic review.”

“This policy allows us to gain the benefits of a diverse student body to benefit our students and the state of Texas,” Powers said.

In addition to race and ethnicity, the brief states that UT's definition of a diverse prospective student includes “an applicant's culture; language; family; educational, geographic and socioeconomic background; work, volunteer or internship experiences; leadership experiences; special artistic or other talents.”

In a news release, the university asserted that the Top 10 Percent Law — automatic admission to the state's public universities for Texas high school students in the top 10 percent of their graduating class — “does not ensure the educational benefits of a diverse student body” and that the holistic review fosters greater diversity.

Though Powers stated he is confident that UT will prevail in the case, Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation, which filed the lawsuit on Fisher's behalf in 2008, said he believed the university is making a weak argument.